List of scientific errors
Despite being a documentary series, several paleontological inaccuracies appear right throughout them. A lot of them are caused by new discoveries. Here's a list of them. General *Animals would not make nearly as much noise as they did in the series. *The pterosaurs lack pteroid bones, bones that make up an essential part of a pterosaur's wings. * The pterosaurs also lack pycnofibers, hair-like filaments on the head and body, similar to, but not homologous (sharing a common structure) with, mammalian hair. * All members of the troodontidae family in the series are fuzzy, while in reality, they had wings and other feathers for show. * Tyrannosaurids may have had feathers, but were not entirely sure if they had them, as skin impressions on Tyrannosaurus rex show they were scaled, but fossilized feathers on Yutyrannus suggested it had feathers. * The primaries of the dinosaurs depicted as having them (Microraptor, Sinornithosaurus, Rahonavis, the anonymous oviraptorid, and Gigantoraptor) are shown attaching to the third finger. They should attach to the second finger. * The Xianglong model is used numerous times throughout the series to represent generic lizards, often ones that lived far after the time Xianglong actually lived. ** On that note, numerous other animals also use the same models as other ones in the series, most notably: *** Rugops and Skorpiovenator *** Alanqa, Dermadactylus, the unidentified chaoyangopterid that preyed on sauropod hatchlings, and Eurazhdarcho *** Allosaurus and Saurophaganax *** Rahonavis and Sinornithosaurus *** Alectrosaurus and Suskityrannus *** Paralititan and Argentinosaurus ''Lost World *Spinosaurus'' can't twist it's hands downward without breaking them. No theropod could do that. Most theropods in the show don't pronate them, but Spinosaurus is shown to do so in many shots. * Ibrahim et al never found the arms for Spinosaurus. What we know about Spinosaurus' arms comes from assumptions based on other spinosaurids. The arms of S. aegyptiacus are unknown at the moment. The idea that Spinosaurus was quadrupedal comes from how short the legs are which very well could be a scaling error as the Ibrahim specimen is not an adult. However the documentary was made bfore this discovery and there is no way they could've made an accurate Spinosaurus. ** Spinosaurus estimated to grow between 15.9 - 18 metres long and estimated to weight between 6 - 23.0 tonnes. *''Onchopristis'' is mentioned to swim up from the sea to freshwater, but newer discoveries indicate they were entirely freshwater animals, just like sturgeons. *''Sarcosuchus'' wasn't a true crocodile, it was a crocodylomorph; species of reptiles related to crocs. *''Ouranosaurus, ''Sarcosuchus, and Rugops are not from the Kem Kem Beds. The former two are from the Elrhaz Formation, dated to 110 million years ago in current-day Niger, while Rugops was from the Echkar Formation, dated to the same time as the Kem Kem Beds but, again, in Niger rather than Algeria and Morocco. *''Baryonyx'' may actually be the same animal as Suchosaurus. ''Feathered Dragons *Epidexipteryx'' is shown to coexist with and serve as prey to Sinraptor, when the two never met. Epidexipteryx lived during the Middle Jurassic, about 164 million years ago, while Sinraptor lived in the Late Jurassic 160 million years ago. However, it is possible that a similar theropod coexisted with Epidexipteryx, perhaps Gasosaurus, and Sinraptor may have coexisted with similar scansoriopterygids like the recently-discovered Yi qi *''Saurornithoides'' is shown to have been covered with fuzz, while in reality, they had wings and other feathers for show. * Sinornithosaurus may not have been venomous. The elongated teeth may have actually been loose and the venom grooves are actually the same as other theropods. So this hypothesis may have been based on a badly preserved skull. However, in the same journal issue, Gong and his team submitted a reassessment of the 2010 study, casting doubt on their findings. They admitted that grooved teeth were common among theropods (though they suggested they were really only prevalent among feathered maniraptorans), and hypothesized that venom may have been a primitive trait for all archosaurs if not all reptiles, which was retained in certain lineages. They also disputed the claim that the teeth were significantly out of their sockets in the holotype specimen of Sinornithosaurus, though they admitted that they were not in a completely natural position. Gong's reassessment also claimed that certain undescribed specimens had fully articulated teeth showing a similar length. So it may have been venomous after all. But it is still debated. * Oviraptor had a ridge on his head. *''Microraptor'' is decipted with the wrong colours of his, as we now know from fossilized melanosomes that they were completely black. *There is evidence small Ornithopods like Jeholosaurus had quills or primitive feathers. *The skull shape of Microraptor is now known to be wrong, as around the base is taller and the tip gradually gets narrower. Last Killers * Troodon is shown to have been covered with fuzz, while in reality, they had wings and other feathers for show. * Daspletosaurus like the rest of Tyrannosaurs may have feathers, but its considered unlikely so its technically not an inaccuracy. * Raptorex was not an ancestor of T.rex, and did not live alongside Psittacosaurus. Raptorex lived 70 mya while Psittacosaurus lived 126-101 mya. *All Ceratopsians may have feather-like bristles on their backside much like Psittacosaurus ''or ''Triceratops. ''Fight For Life *Predator X is now known as ''Pliosaurus funkei, it has also been downsized from 15 metres and 45 tonnes to 10 to 13 metres in length, while weighing in at 10 to 20 tonnes. *A new paper on the cranio-dental morphology of Allosaurus ''and how it worked has deemed the hatchet jaw attack unlikely, reinterpreting the unusually wide gape as an adaptation to allow ''Allosaurus ''to deliver a muscle-driven bite to large prey, with the weaker jaw muscles being a trade-off to allow for the widened gape. New Giants *Argentinosaurus'' was probably not the largest dinosaur of all time, but merely a candidate for the title, other fossils of similarly sized, if not larger, animals have been found, such as Puertasaurus, Patagotitan, and "Brachiosaurus nougaredi" (an undescribed sauropod known from a massive partial sacrum discovered in the Kem Kem Beds). It is still possible that Argentinosaurus is the largest, however, but more studies need to be done on this matter. *''Lacusovagus '' was already fossilized, when there was Argentinosaurus, since Lacusovagus lived on the Aptian, 117 Million years ago. * Sarcosuchus and Ouranosaurus run into the same problem here as they did above. The Great Survivors *''Bradycneme'' is shown to have been covered with fuzz, while in reality, they had wings and other feathers for show. *''Bradycneme, like all alvarezsaurids, had only one finger on its hand. * ''Hatzegopteryx had the crest of Quetzalcoatlus, not Hatzegopteryx. ''However, it is a close cousin. * ''Hatzegopteryx was quite a bit stockier than it was depicted here. *The tyrannosaur from the Zuni Basin isn't called Zunityrannus, They just named it that, but still, due to scientific rules, the first name stays unless the animal is just the same of another species. Zunityrannus''is estimated to be 4 meters long and weigh a tonne. * ''Nothronychus most likely had wings, used for display and brooding of nests. *''Bradycneme'' is depicted as a troodontid, when in real life it was an alvarezsaurid. * In the database says that the mortality of the dinosaurs is 100, is not quite correct because the Birds are modern dinosaurs, as shown in episode 2.'''' Category:Errors